Serving a 24 County Area, Including Birmingham, Huntsville, Montgomery & Tuscaloosa
OCTOBER 2024 / $5
UAB First in World to Use New Device for Electrophysiology Procedures By JAne ehrhArDt
Electrophysiologist Tom McElderry, MD, with the UAB Cardiovascular Institute, became the first physician in the world to utilize a new vascular closure system to help stop the bleeding for procedures that need a larger venous access site. The procedure using the Vascade MVP XL mid-bore venous closure system took place in mid-June, and the device achieved full market release on August 15. McElderry, also the co-director of the UAB Heart and Vascular Center, worked with the engineers at Haemonetics to produce the new device, which is an extension of the original Vascade MVP meant for smaller openings that has been
in use since 2019. The device uses a collapsible disc technology with a collagen patch to close the venous access post-surgery. When the sheath, through which the instruments reach the surgical site, is removed from the vein, the collagen patch is applied and serves as a plug, causing less discomfort for the patient. McElderry collaborated with the engineers in a series of experiments deploying collagen in preclinical models. The larger opening presented the team with two challenges. “We had to work on getting the collagen right—the volume that would consistently achieve hemostasis at the vessel,” McElderry says. “And we had to minimize the friction between the col-
lagen and the delivery system so that we could consistently deliver the collagen at the desired location.” The use of collagen in the Vascade system has been a significant improvement over prior closure techniques. Before Vascade, closure was accomplished by putting direct pressure on the area or a stitch system. “The older ways of managing this could be uncomfortable for the patient,” McElderry says. “Surgeons would put a suture through the skin that needed to be removed later. It’s called a figure-of-eight suture, which can be uncomfortable while the stitch is in and then during the removal process. Patients had to lay immobile for six hours with a 10(CONTINUED ON PAGE 3)
Tom McElderry, MD
All of Us Research Program Will Bring Enormous Value to Healthcare By steve sPencer
In his 2015 State of the Union, President Obama announced the Precision Medicine Initiative with the goal of one day being able to tailor medical treatments to the individual based their genetic and health data. From that vision, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) created the All of Us Research Program. In order to accelerate medical research, the program aimed to build a database of health information on 1,000,000 people, and as of August has exceeded that with over 1,277,000 participants and counting. People who join the program start by filling out a questionnaire that includes their name, where they live, along with basic questions about their health, lifestyle, and fam(CONTINUED ON PAGE 3)
www.birminghammedicalnews.com
FOLLOW US
+Complete
orthopaedic care from start to finish